Day 8: The Catholic vocation of marriage and family

The eighth day attends to the broader Catholic theology of the family as a vocation, a path to holiness, and the domestic Church.

The domestic Church

The Second Vatican Council taught that the Catholic family is the Ecclesia domestica, the domestic Church: the first place where the Catholic faith is taught, the sacraments prepared for, and the moral life formed. Every Catholic family is therefore not merely a private household but a small ecclesial unit.

Prayer

Holy Family of Nazareth, make our family a true domestic Church. May we pray together, attend Mass together, confess our sins to a priest together, and form one another in the Catholic faith. Amen.

Conclude with one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be.